CHAMBERSBURG - The growth in the jail population is expected to cost Franklin County another $150,000 this year.

The county sent 14 sentenced female inmates to the Indiana County Jail earlier this month. To cover the cost, county commissioners are taking $147,840 from contingency funds and adding it the jail’s annual operating budget of $10.9 million. Local tax revenue is the primary source of jail funding.

The jail’s women dormitory has been overcrowded this year. The county jail's female population is growing at a faster rate than the national trend. The number of women in the local county jail has more than doubled in less than 5 years. The growth was not anticipated when the $30 million jail was built 10 years ago.

The jail’s male and female population has grown by a third in less than a decade. The jail, designed to meet the county’s needs until 2026, has an occupancy level of 468 inmates, although it has a total of 496 beds. The jail averaged 465 inmates in June.

William Bechtold, warden of the Franklin County Jail(Photo: File)

“We will be maxed out at this time next year,” Warden William Bechtold told the Franklin County Prison Board last week. “We are just reporting on the numbers at this point.”

Commissioner David Keller said county staff is looking at what the county is doing and what can be done.

Franklin County Commissioner David Keller(Photo: Courtesy)

“They’re making every effort to understand what’s behind the numbers,” Keller said. “It’s not a crisis situation. We want to keep the attention focused on it and make data-driven decisions.”

The county has initiated several programs to reduce the number of people doing jail time as punishment. Many are under house arrest. Some hold their jobs and check in for daily drug testing.

The community also is helping inmates who have completed their sentences to come up with a home plan so they can leave jail. Each month about 17 inmates who are eligible for release don’t have a plan for living in the community. Cases have become increasingly complex.

“We’re coming together to focus efforts in a better way to give them the support they need so they don’t go back to jail,” said Assistant Administrator Carrie Gray.

Drug problems and mental illness complicate incarceration and attempts at rehabilitation. During June, 60 percent of the jail population had a drug or alcohol problem and 11 percent had serious mental illness. A third of people committed to jail during the month were placed on detoxification.

The Day Reporting Center has just 59 participants, down from 121 in 2012.

“Percentage wise, we continue to be as successful as we have been,” said Kim Eaton, director of the Day Reporting Center Program.

DRC is a less expensive alternative to incarceration for people convicted of minor offenses. Those selected receive therapy, job skills training and drug and alcohol treatment, if needed. They report regularly to the center and are subject to drug testing.

“We all feel the DRC has been a successful venture,” Keller said.

The county Adult Probation Department makes referrals to the DRC.

Probation however has been ramping up its own alternatives to incarceration. The programs this year through June saved the county the equivalent of housing 41 inmates (7,525 jail days), according to Chief Probation Officer Dan Hoover. The savings are nearly $500,000.

Offenders, convicted of driving under the influence or driving while suspended, can wear electronic monitors that track their whereabouts or check their alcohol abstinence. Some probation violators may see other alternative dispositions instead of going back to jail.

“We’re using a number of programs to keep the jail population down,” Hoover said. “I don’t know what the silver bullet is.”

Commissioner Robert Thomas said the red flag for the county has been the increasing number of women in jail.

The county jailed an average of 38 women in 2012 and currently incarcerates 94. As soon as the county sent 14 women to Indiana County in June, four or five more were committed to the local jail, Bechtold said.

The additional money in the budget does not cover the cost of transportation or any major health problems of the women housed in the Indiana jail, according to county Administrator John Hart. Transportation costs should be limited because the women are sentenced and not likely to appear for court hearings.